Image Registration Improves Confidence and Accuracy of Image Interpretation

Introduction Sequential MR examinations of the brain are the primary method for clinical as well as research assessment of the effects of therapy on brain tumors. In clinical practice, visual comparison is the primary method of assessing changes that indicate tumor response or progression. This is a labor-intensive process involving visual search for changes between examinations on multiple images from multiple image types. Furthermore, some of the changes that may be perceived could be do to acquisition-related changes, rather than changes in the tumor status. One of these changes is the change in the patient position between the two time points. While every effort is made to acquire images in the same plane as prior exams, this is rarely achieved. In this study, we evaluated computerized image registration (A.K.A. image alignment) on accuracy and confi dence.